There were two continental places everyone would talk of when I landed in Mumbai a decade back. One was Cafe Churchill at Colaba. The other was Pot Pourri at Turner Road Bandra.
Both had its loyalists. Churchill came with the charm of Colaba. Impossible to say no to. Pot Pourri was the tip of the iceberg of what Bandra was going to become. Pot Pourri was always full. Full of people. Full of life. It was ‘Pot’ with a ‘t’ for many till pot pourri room fresheners became popular. But it’s still Pot with a ‘t’ for most.
I had many meals there over the years. Office friends. Client lunches for which I was later admonished by the boss for making the client eat on a restaurant facing road. Strolling down from home with K for lazy dinners later in life. New year’s lunch with the in laws. The Christmas specials there. And the really ‘lazy’ attempt at ‘lazy breakfasts’. Memories of risottos, cheese bangers, creamy cheese pastas, pa in law’s roast lamb sandwich without mushrooms, turkey in orange sauce and roast ham for Christmas make up many a Pot Pourri memory. And, of course, its pastries at Melting Moments which from a cake counter become a whole air conditioned shop in shop. Slowly we become neighbours with a gentleman who runs the restaurant.
Pot Pourri shut down towards the end of last year. Renovation we were told. Christmas came and went without Yule Tide chocolate logs and roast turkey. The days went by. Then the signboards came up.
Pot Pourri was gone. It’s cousin, Lemon Grass, up in its place. The same tables. The cake shop substituted by an A C dining section. The same waiters including the chubby gentleman with a white walrus moustache.
Crowded out by fancier and pricier upstarts which later came to Bandra with their Continental fare? The growing popularity of Oriental cuisine? We will never know the truth. But as G said said yesterday, Pot Pourri, will be missed.
What are your Pot Pourri memories?
